Flashing earrings are known. These are usually worn as novelty items. One such earring is an earring shaped like a small Christmas tree powered by a small battery. These earrings are seen occasionally at Christmas parties.
Many types of heartbeat monitors are known. These include pressure monitors; the simplest being a finger pressed against an artery. A well-known technique for measuring heartbeat utilizes a infrared (IR) light emitting diode (LED)/photocell combination. This technique is discussed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,239,048, 4,100,536 and 4,407,295, each of which are incorporated herein by reference. Infrared light will travel several centimeters through typical human skin tissue. Its absorption is much greater in blood. Thus, an IR LED is pressed against skin tissue near an artery and emits pulsed infrared light into the skin. A photocell is placed against the skin near the IR LED and measures light scattered from or transmitted through the skin. The signal received by the photocell varies as the blood surges in the tissue near the photocell and the IR LED with each beat of the person's heart. It is known that a person's earlobe is a good place to place the IR LED/photocell instrument since the carotid artery runs close to the ear. In prior art devices signals from the photocell are typically transmitted to a comparator, which calculates the rate of heart, beat and the resulting rate is displayed on a monitor.
What is needed is a simple method of displaying heartbeat by means of visible light flashes with a device that can be worn as a novelty item.